Welcome to the AC Tropical Fish aquarium forum. Our aquarium forum is the place to discuss any aquarium related issue in a friendly environment. Our aquarium forum welcomes aquarists of all levels from beginners to experts. Please ask a question in the how to section of our forum or read the FAQ section if you have any questions. register to and become a part of our friendly aquarium forum community today.

I see. Yes, it was reading 0 before the CO2 addition. It has been set up for hmmm, about 10 years lol, and onl moved to the bedroom for the last 3 years. Must be the CO2. Questions: will the ammonia then keep rising if I keep it in? Should I move it away from the intake, or take it out altogether until I could get a bubble counter? And regarding fertilizers, are the root tabs that I have sufficient? And is seachem's floursih a good liquid fert?
Thanks!

You may want to look into a dedicated CO2 reactor instead of using the filter intake then. What root tabs are you using? I'd have to look into what liquid ferts are good to use since I make my own mixtures instead of the overpriced manufactured stuff. I've heard some of them are worth using while others are garbage. You'll also need to make sure you're dosing both micro and macro.

I'm not quite sure whats in my API root tabs, but I'll check when I get home. After looking around a bit, I decided my 30 gal. Plants are deficient on nitrogen and sulfur (macro nutrients?). I'll look into what is in both the seachem liquid flourish and root tabs, but I don't really know much about dosing ratios. I would assume that if I got the flourish, there would be instructions.

I doubt your plants are suffering nitrogen deficiency though since you have at least 10ppm nitrate in your tanks. Flourish seems to cover trace elements which may be all you need. You don't need to worry about ratios when dealing with mixed ferts in a bottle. I dose my macros based on an N-P-K ratio that works for me. If you end up needing to dose those separately, then I can help you out with that, but as it stands it doesn't look like you need to dose macros any time soon.

What about sulfur deficiency then? I just read on this forum that if the leaves are getting yellow sooner than usual, its nitrogen or sulfur deficiency. So just to sum up, stick with the root tabs, get some flourish, and a CO2 bubble controller. Thanks a bunch, btw. I'm also gonna move my big Harly rasbora into the QT: he's not looking good, still that white fungus that seems to have gotten worse on him over the past day. Darn.

Moved the Harly's back in the thirty! Then cleaned the glass on both sides, and attempted photography. here are My first tries with a macro lense. Note: I took about 14 photographs, these are only the best ones. Feedback appreciated. I didn't clean off the glass too well on the back. I'm also working on putting together a black background.IMGP4305.jpgIMGP4307.jpgIMGP4313.jpgIMGP4314.jpgIMGP4315.jpg

Having a dilemma about substrate dwellers. Since I moved the emerald cory to the 30 gallon, his mouth has seemed to become very, very blunt. He didn't have any barbels to begin with, and now it seems his mouth is almost degenerating. Makes me wonder about getting more cories or loaches, and if putting them in that tank would really be best for them. Maybe I'll go with shoaling fish only, and a krib. Plus my lazy pleco. That's a thought. Down to 1 rasbora too. Plant deficiency still is annoying. Tank looks nice though!

I set up a bigger quarantine tank: 15 gallons! Pretty sure I want about 10 ottocinclus in the thirty gal, the bigger gravel size would not harm their sucker mouths. Thinking about ghost shrimp too, but I'm not too into them. I love cherry shrimp, but they're not available around here. Now with a bigger quarantine I could get those ottos. I'm stoked about it!
Wishful stocking:
1 clown plec
8 harlly rasboras
10 black neons
10 ottocinlus
1 kribensis.

Having a dilemma about substrate dwellers. Since I moved the emerald cory to the 30 gallon, his mouth has seemed to become very, very blunt. He didn't have any barbels to begin with, and now it seems his mouth is almost degenerating. Makes me wonder about getting more cories or loaches, and if putting them in that tank would really be best for them.

You're saying the cory's mouth was getting damaged from the gravel? Seems odd to me. I'd imagine the sand in the 10g would be much worse for the cory than the gravel in the 30g.

Have the plants changed at all? Post some close-ups of the plants that look nutrient deficient and I'll try to narrow it down for you. It'll be hard to determine if it's actually nutrients or CO2 though. My plants were suffering from what looked like potassium, phosphate and magnesium deficiencies but I couldn't imagine being deficient of those so I assumed it was CO2, and after improving the CO2 diffusion to increase the concentration my plants improved dramatically.

You're saying the cory's mouth was getting damaged from the gravel? Seems odd to me. I'd imagine the sand in the 10g would be much worse for the cory than the gravel in the 30g.

I would just think that because the sand is soft and he can burrow, it would be fine for his mouth, whereas with gravel, it's too big, so he just keeps shoving his nose into the gravel again and again. What do you think?

Anyway, its not a good pic (I don't have a better lense at the moment, so this is a macro) but here is kind of the deficiency I am seeing in the wisteria. I'm begginning to believe that my lighting just sucks (T8 standard from aqueon). IMGP4376.jpg
The dwarf four leaf in the ten gal has seen little growth. Not completely dormant, some growth, but not where I want it either. But I havn't done anything to it except put in root tabs, so I am okay with that. The wisteria plant in the ten gallon is looking extremely well, no defiency to speak of as far as I can tell except for a little algae covering it. Its progress is easily observed.
And last, my new addition. A bolivian ram! He/she has gotten back some color since I got it, and loves the cave, as well as the new sandbox I put in for it and the cory cat after learning it was a geophagus. It moves around the bottom third of the tank to its content. Any thoughts on gender? I might eventually try and get a pair, but for now I love this one's behavior.IMGP4372.jpgIMGP4374.jpgIMGP4375.jpg